Serie A Preview: Milan vs Verona – Team News, Line-ups & Prediction | OneFootball

Saturday’s Serie A action closes out at the San Siro as out-of-sorts Milan take on relegation-battling Hellas Verona in a must-win fixture. Milan’s tumultuous 2024/25 campaign is spiraling into chaos despite the club’s remarkable effort in the January transfer window.

Winter signing Santiago Gimenez returned to his old stomping ground on Wednesday as Feyenoord stunned Milan 1-0 at De Kuip. A thoroughly disheartening performance in Rotterdam cast substantial doubt on the Italian giants’ bid to secure a last-16 berth in the Champions League.

On the bright side, Gimenez scored on his Serie A debut last weekend. Milan squeezed past bottom-half Empoli 2-0 in an ill-tempered contest at Stadio Carlo Castellani to stay within striking distance of the European qualification spots. However, the margin for error remains thin.

Sergio Conceicao’s charges lag seven points behind fourth-placed Lazio, albeit with a game in hand. Therefore, there’s still hope they can lock down a Champions League qualification place. But that’s no longer in their hands, although they must hold up their end of the bargain.

Visiting Hellas Verona can hardly throw a spanner in the works after suffering a morale-wracking 5-0 home defeat to Atalanta last weekend. Under-pressure head coach Paolo Zanetti is walking a tightrope despite Verona’s fragile three-point lead on Serie A’s bottom three.

They had earned that breathing space with four points against fellow relegation rivals Monza and Venezia. However, matches against top-half teams often spell trouble for the Gialloblu.

Match Preview

Milan

Despite guiding Milan to Supercoppa Italiana glory immediately upon taking over from Paulo Fonseca, Conceciao has failed to establish consistent results at the San Siro. Notoriously inconsistent, Milan last won back-to-back Serie A games in mid-September.

They have since gone 17 league outings without winning twice in a row (W7, D6, L4). That run includes a narrow 1-0 victory at Verona in December. Tijjani Reijnders netted a winning goal at Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi to inspire Milan to an eighth consecutive win against Verona.

However, a more comprehensive scoreline could be on the cards should Milan enter the win column. Indeed, four of their five home league triumphs this season saw them score 3+ goals, highlighting the potential for a goal-glutted fixture.

Furthermore, Milan bagged precisely three goals in both competitive home wins in 2025 against Roma and Parma. The former came in the Coppa Italia and saw Joao Felix on the scoreboard in his first appearance in the Rossoneri shirt.

Hellas Verona

Losing without a reply has become a theme for the visiting side. Atalanta’s emphatic victory at the Bentegodi inflicted Verona’s third defeat ‘to nil’ across their last five Serie A matches, underscoring their nasty habit of collapsing after conceding the opening goal.

It’s also worth mentioning that those three losses came against current top-seven teams, with Napoli (2-0) and Lazio (3-0) condemning them to multi-goal margin defeats. Since demolishing the former 3-0 on day one, Verona’s form against the division’s elite has descended into disarray.

Indeed, they’ve since lost all nine league encounters against sides starting this round inside the top seven. Moreover, Zanetti’s underachievers conceded an alarming 30 goals across those failures while only netting three in return.

Team News

In addition to long-term absentees Alessandro Florenzi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Milan will be without winter arrival Warren Bondo and Emerson Royal due to injuries. Meanwhile, Fikayo Tomori is out of contention after picking up a red card at Empoli.

On the other hand, Verona cannot call upon the services of Suat Serdar, Martin Frese, Abdou Harroui, and top scorer Casper Tengstedt for this trip. While Ondrej Duda returns from suspension, Zanetti will be without Daniele Ghilardi for accumulated yellow cards.

Milan vs Hellas Verona Potential Line-ups

Milan (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Walker, Thiaw, Pavlovic, Hernandez; Fofana, Musah; Pulisic, Reijnders, Felix; Gimenez.

Hellas Verona (3-4-2-1): Montipo; Daniliuc, Coppola, Dawidowicz; Tchatchoua, Niasse, Duda, Bradaric; Suslov; Sarr, Mosquera.

Milan vs Hellas Verona Prediction

Except for a bizarre 0-0 draw against Genoa on the club’s 125th anniversary, Milan have been ruthless against Serie A minnows at home this season. Therefore, we expect the Rossoneri to extend Verona’s misery and set themselves up nicely for the upcoming return leg against Feyenoord on this ground.